The Easy Prisoner
by haveyouseenmyhaggis
Summary: Owen Harper didn't die in the nuclear power plant. He was kidnapped. He's trapped like an animal with nothing to do but remember the past and piece together plans for the future. Mild spoliers for 2:13. Enjoy! Oneshot.


**Title: The Easy Prisoner**

**Summary: Owen Harper didn't die in the nuclear power plant. He was kidnapped. He's trapped like an animal with nothing to do but remember the past and piece together plans for the future. **

**Author's Note: This is my theory for _Children Of The Earth. _I don't think Owen's gone. This is what I think has happened to him. I hope you enjoy this story, I've been working on it for some time now. I needed to take a break from revision for a bit. I've just finished writing out the key points of osmosis so I think I deserved a bit of time to have fun! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own _Torchwood.

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"Quit yer whining!" came the harsh snap from the other side of the cell door. This was nothing new. It happened every day now and I'd gotten used to it. I was an easy prisoner for them to keep. I didn't need fed. I didn't need so sleep. He didn't need water. But hell was I bored. But they didn't care. Why should they? I was only there as a means to blackmail Torchwood. Sometimes I just had to shout at them and piss them off just to hear someone speak.

"You can't keep me here forever," I told the man outside my door as I peered out through the twenty centimetres by twenty centimetres barred window (believe me, when you're trapped in a cell with nothing to do, you have time to estimate these things) and tried to see him. This was hard, because they never let me see them. They thought it would give their game away if I knew who they were, so I never heard more than a voice.

"You bet we can," the man countered gruffly, "Now jus' shut up."

"I'll be out of here soon," I insisted, pacing by cell like an animal in a small pen in a zoo. I was dead certain the team would come and get me out. They had to, hadn't they?

"Yer mates think yer dead right now. They won't know where to look for you. When they do figure it out, they'll try an' rescue you, and we'll kill 'em," the man told me. He always took great pleasure in telling me that. I sighed and rested my head against the wall of the cell and tried not to believe him. I missed the team desperately. I missed the banter; I missed Ianto's bloody amazing coffee; I missed winding up Ianto; I missed Jack and his stories I never knew if I could believe or not; I missed Gwen and the life she brought to Torchwood; I missed Tosh with her shy little smile and her little gestures of kindness even if I was being a jerk. I couldn't deny I liked Tosh, loved her even, not after the conversation we'd had back when I was stuck in that sodded nuclear power station. I shut my eyes and shook my head slightly, trying not to think about that scene but the memory dragged me in further, just as it always did.

_"Just stay calm," Tosh begged me over the comm. sounding weak and frightened but I was too frightened and angry to notice._

_"Oh, why should I do that?" I demanded bitterly, "Where's the fun in that?" I was feeling trapped, tortured and tormented. I couldn't have escaped but I was too slow. I was going to die again. _

_"Please stop!" she pleaded desperately._

_"Why? Give me one good bloody reason why I shouldn't keep screaming!" I yelled furiously as I walked in circles around the room agitatedly._

_"Because you're breaking my heart."_

I bit my lip and tried not to let my captor know I was upset again. He'd no doubt use it to bully me. I was selfish. I'd been hurting Tosh. I was being a self-centred bastard that didn't deserve to live, and I was asking too much of her. Why should she be able to save me? Huh? What was she meant to do? I'd just made her feel bad because I was in a mess. As if it was her fault. I'm such a mindless bastard sometimes. I never used to be like that. When I had Katie everything was alright. Everything was better. But now? Now I'm just a miserable git wallowing in my own self-loathing. I shut my eyes again and let the memories drown me again.

_I knew I was going to die. I had to face it somehow. I_ _stood up and shut my eyes, waiting. I was shaking slightly but that was only to be expected, wasn't it. The dead man was dying. Now that's not something you can say every day, is it? Then the light started. I thought it was the station going into melt down. I thought that was it. I thought my existence was over then. I thought I was going to die. And then I opened my eyes._

_And there I was. I opened my eyes and found myself in the middle of a cell. This cell. I didn't have a clue what was going on and I was frightened. This wasn't how I'd remembered death. I was confused and worried. "Tosh?" I called out tentatively, but there was no signal in my comm. I shut my eyes again, hoping it wasn't real, but it was. I was stuck somewhere else - and I was still dead. _

_"Now we've got Torchwood, we can take the Earth!" I heard a gleeful voice say from outside the cell. I scrambled to my feet and pressed myself up against the cold stone wall beside the door and listened. The man carried on talking, "Captain Jack Harkness will try to get this one back. He'd risk everything! Or at least the rest of his little gang will. They've already lost one of his team, and they won't want another one gone!"That confused me. Someone was dead? Who? Tosh? Ianto? Gwen? I felt a lump in my throat then. A member of Torchwood was dead; one of my friends. No! I crumpled to the ground and buried my head in my hands. What the hell was I going to do? _

_I tried shouting at the guards but it was no use. They never told me anything about where I was, other than that they were going to kill the team when they tried to save me._

Days dragged on and on. There was no hope for me. The only thing I had to do with my time was to try and figure out what was going on, but they were really careful around me; never saying anything that could give away their plans. The only thing I really heard them talk about - which didn't make sense to me - was "the children of the Earth".


End file.
